Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Bigun
   Member

   I really hate it when an offer on GOTD meets the requirements of a scam. We have had products offered before that turned into trial versions after they have been downloaded and activated within GOTD's 24-hour period for a variety of reasons.

   Probably the most common reason for the conversion of a program from "registered and usable" to "trial" is updating the program from the offered version to a newer release. This can happen by an uninformed user seeing an opportunity to update a program and innocently taking advantage of the program update dangled before him. Probably more commonly there is an automatic update built into a program that continuously checks a server to see if an updated version of the program is available. There is a variation to these scenarios but the end result is the same. BAM! A supposedly workable version of a program has been transferred into a trial version which is limited in scope and the time interval in which the program will function.

   The most recent example for me of a program being transferred from "workable" to "trial" is "SliceMaker". Nine days ago (06 June 2013) "SliceMaker" was offered on GOTD. Judging the program by the comments that were posted on the GOTD website "SliceMaker" fell into the un-recommended column. The program in general was poorly received for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons were silly while others were earnest . This evening I had the opportunity to put the "SliceMaker" program to use. When I opened "SliceMaker" I was immediately presented with an error message. The error message said that I was on day 10 of 7 day trial.

   I correctly installed and activated SliceMaker during the prescribed GOTD offering. After installation I made no effort to update the program. In fact the only time I used the program before this evening was immediately after I installed it. Actually the error message was an error within itself. It was only nine days since the program's installation. My major point is that an offer was made on GOTD, a proper installation and activation of the program followed and my installation of the program changed from something that was supposed to work into a mess. I got an error message telling me that I exceeded the trial period and I had a program that I cannot even open. I do not blame GOTD for the scam but I can now better appreciate the reasons behind the many negative comments that the program received.

   Posted 10 years ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Well, I never added it to my regular Windows installs, & I've restored my VMs since the 6th, so I can't say how it behaves over time. In my XP Mode VM I did however install the trial of SliceMaker that I'd downloaded the day of the giveaway, & it appeared to register just fine using the info in the GOTD readme.txt file.

   Perhaps that will work for you -- the trial shows version 3.5.0.0 & is dated 6/5/2013 -- or maybe just re-register the app?

   Based on that it doesn't look to me like a scam of any sort... I originally monitored what happens when you register SliceMaker, & there were quite a few changes, including files, the registry, & even a cookie or two, making it easier for something to get changed or deleted so the app shows unregistered.

   Posted 10 years ago #
3. 

   Bigun
   Member

   Thanks for acknowledging the post. As I mentioned, I did not have a problem with installation and registration of the program during the 24 hour period that was offered. The program was converted from "registered" to "trial". Another GOTD program that ran the same cycle of registered and later converted to trial was DriverMagic. That and a few other programs went through the same cycle repeatedly. Check the old posts for confirmation.

   The program was registered, activated and run (once). The "trial" tag did not show up until some later time. I don't know when the program crossed the line from being a registered program to trialware. It could have crossed that line the next day. I did not open and subsequently get the message I mentioned until after I reopened the program over a week after the installation - and registration.

   Posted 10 years ago #
4. 

   LaurentHe
   Member

   To all GOTD users,

   This is Laurent from SliceMaker. Because there is an error exists on SliceMaker Standard v3.5 saying "You are on day XXX of your 7 day evaluation period. Your trial periods is expired! You need to purchase a license to run this software." So we highly suggest you to redownload SliceMaker Standard from our website.

   Note:
   1) Please download SliceMaker Standard v3.5 at: http://www.slicemaker.com/down/slicemaker_standard.exe
   2) Please use the same Username and Password you got from GOTD to register this software.(100% work!)
   3) The registration info (Username and Password) provided by GOTD will expire on July 1st, 2013.

   At last, sorry for any inconvenience caused by us.

   SliceMaker Soft, Inc.
   http://www.slicemaker.com
   24/7 technical support: support@slicemaker.com

   Posted 10 years ago #
5. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Thanks LaurenHe, that's really kind of you to bring this fix to our attention. I also installed Slicemaker and it became a trial.

   Nice one; have a brilliant and successful week, month year, life. :)

   Posted 10 years ago #
6. 

   LaurentHe
   Member

   You're welcome, Whiterabbit-uk. It is our duty to help you since we made the big mistake. If available, I hope you guys will tell other GOTD users this post so that they can regain SliceMaker Standard as a freebie again.

   At last, thank you guys for still choosing SliceMaker products, we will surely bring you guys more brilliant products and services.

   :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

   Posted 10 years ago #
7. 

   graylox
   Moderator

   Thank you LaurentHe,
   helpful developers are always very welcome.
   I forwarded your post to the GOTD team just in case they didn't find it here.
   This news should be announced in their official blog.

   graylox

   18-06-2013

   Posted 10 years ago #
8. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   As I posted earlier the trial I downloaded the day of the GOTD seemed to register & work just fine. I don't know if it stayed registered a day or days afterward. For most offers I assume some folks will try to register the trial rather than use the GOTD setup file -- that's why I normally install the trial, then the GOTD on top of it, so I can detect any differences between the 2 in case someone has problems. It occurred to me that if someone registered the trial, & it was still registered, they'd wonder if they should bother with uninstalling it to add this newest download, so I monitored the new download to see what's different... The answer is the main .exe file -- though it has the same version number it's a different size -- plus several .xml files. Do note that the old version does have to be uninstalled first, & that the registration info may not be retained [registration data is stored in the program's folder rather than in the registry], so you should have the key from the GOTD readme file handy just in case.

   Posted 10 years ago #
9. 

   LaurentHe
   Member

   Thanks very much for your note, mikiem2.

   If you guys cannot find the registration info or simply lost it, please feel free to contact our support team. We will resend you the correct registration info and will teach you how to register the software step by step.

   Contact our support team at: support@slicemaker.com

   Best Regards

   Posted 10 years ago #
10. 

    Lester (Chip)
    English Mod

    Thank you LaurentHe for fixing this error and clearing things up. Helpful developers that stand by their software is always good to see. Thank you for offering your software and take care!

    Posted 10 years ago #

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